Reporting system helps distinguish lifting house

Established over 20 years ago, the Australian lifting house Ranger serves clients throughout the country from its offices in Sydney and Melbourne.

The family-owned business has been a pioneer in its field and was the first in Australia to be awarded full membership of the global trade association, LEEA.

Given the distances between inspection sites, Ranger’s paper-based reporting system resulted in delays in updating records and the process was also prone to human error. Founder Verity Thacker saw the opportunity to reduce the time it took to generate reports and give the company a competitive advantage.

Ranger commissioned CoreRFID to develop a bespoke system. e-Testinspect is based on CoreRFID’s CheckedOK solution and specifically designed for the Australian market.

Not only has it dramatically reduced reporting times, but it has also allowed Ranger to differentiate itself in the market by offering clients a host of benefits including 24/7 traceability of equipment and peace of mind.

Since its launch in 2010, Ranger has continued to work with CoreRFID to upgrade, refine and further develop the system.

With e-Testinspect, Ranger set out to create a solution that could offer, “peace of mind for management, operation and productivity efficiency and quality control.”

CoreRFID designed the system to meet Australian standards and encompass both NATA (National Association of Testing authorities) and LEEA methodology for best practice.

e-Testinspect has reduced reporting time from several days to less than 12 hours and as little as two hours in some cases. Engineers now record inspections on site using mobile devices, and the data is automatically uploaded. Because there is no need to transcribe written records, there is less room for error.

Not only has it improved efficiency, but Ranger has also used it to set itself apart from the competition and reinforce its position as a pioneer in the industry. The company tells customers that it is “helping you to work, not push paper.”

In the first eight years since its launch, Ranger has used e-Testinspect to record over 330,000 inspections for 1260 customers which together manage 167,000 assets.

Ranger has continued to work closely with CoreRFID through a series of upgrades, including software modifications and a switch to a Windows platform. In October 2018 Ranger moved to an Android operating system, which offers far better price and performance. The two companies continue to liaise closely, working remotely with regular video conferences and occasionally meeting up at industry conferences.

As Ranger tells its clients: “In accordance with ever changing industry standards and customer demand, e-Testinspect is constantly being reviewed and improved to provide the highest quality solutions for Australia’s lifting industry.”

General manager Ashley Thacker says, “Nothing was too much trouble for the team at CoreRFID. They adapted the system to the way we want to work and were eager to suggest ways we could improve our customer service, which is all-important to our continued success.”

Ranger says that the benefits e-Testinspect promotes include

• Complete asset register for easy record keeping.
• Simple to use, sort and export data.
• Reports can show what items are missing.
• Automatic reminders for items due for inspection.
• All certificates on-line for full traceability.
• Search filters make assets easy to find.
• Register ready within hours of inspection.

Verity Thacker says, “CoreRFID is able to adapt the system with new ideas and initiatives, so we’re never standing still for too long and we are upping our competitiveness regularly.”